Gift cards are a convenient means for people to provide a financial gift to one another that can be more personalized or allotted for a particular use than exchanging cash. To obtain a gift card, a purchaser typically pays an amount matching the desired value of the gift card (plus any gift card fees), receives the physical gift card, and provides it to the recipient for future use with one or more associated merchants that accept the card or for general use (similar to a credit card) depending on the type of gift card. While convenient, conventional gift cards often come with significant drawbacks. For example, conventional gift cards require that the purchaser spend the money to obtain the card before the money can be used by the recipient. Additionally, if the recipient only spends a portion of the value of the gift card or loses possession of the gift card, the recipient will not receive the full value that the gifter paid for the gift card, unnecessarily wasting some of the gifter's money. Furthermore, because conventional gift cards are either tied to specific merchants or available for general use (similar to a credit card), a gifter who wishes to give a customized gift for redemption from a particular merchant may find it unduly burdensome to hunt down a conventional gift card associated with that merchant, or may find that gift cards for the desired merchant do not exist. Further still, before being redeemed, a conventional gift card must be transferred to the possession of the recipient so that the recipient may decide when and where to redeem the gift card, which prevents a gifter from including an element of surprise in association with a particular purchase.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems that may allow a gifter to provide a financial gift having customizable redemption conditions that are enforced by the system and do not require that the gifter spend money on the gift before the recipient redeems the gift. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to this and other considerations.